lar pleasure; so I found
they did, and I advise those of my readers who have to go away from home
to remember this, and never to lose an opportunity of writing. We were
bound for San Francisco, the giant mushroom city of the wondrous
gold-bearing regions of California. I had always fancied that the
Pacific was, as its name betokens, a wide expanse of island-sprinkled
water, seldom or never ruffled by a storm. At length I had practical
proof of my mistake. We had made a good offing from the coast, to give
a wide berth to that narrow strip of land which runs from north to
south, and is known as Lower California. I saw the captain looking
constantly at the barometer; Jerry and I looked also, for we guessed
that something was the matter. The quicksilver sank lower and lower in
the tube, showing that the superincumbent atmosphere had become lighter,
or more rarified, and that a current of air would soon come in from some
direction or other and fill it up.

"What's going to happen?" I asked of Jerry, seeing that the glass, or
rather the fluid in it, fell more and more.

"Why, we are going to have such a gale as we don't often meet with, I
suspect," he answered. Just as he spoke, his father's voice was heard
on dock. We immediately hurried there as fast as we could fly. At the
time there was but little wind, then it became perfectly calm, with only
a long heavy swell from the southward. The calm was of short duration.

"All hands shorten sail!" sung out the captain. The crew sprung aloft;
so did Jerry and I. We never shirked our duty, and Captain Frankland
knew that if he let us do so, whatever the excuse, we should never
become true seamen. It was hard work to hold on to the yard, much more
to get in the stiff canvas. I have heard of people having their teeth
blown down their throats by a gale; I thought mine would have gone, and
then I should have gone too, for I literally had to hold on by them to
steady myself on the yard. Jerry was not far from me. We tugged and
hauled away, and at last got the canvas rolled up as we best could; but
I must own that it was far from well done. The gale was still
increasing in strength, and we were not sorry to find ourselves safe on
deck again--so, I think, was the captain to see us. Perhaps, however,
he had got so accustomed to the risks his son was constantly running,
that he did not think about it. Scarcely had we come down from aloft,
and were looking about to see